Christmas Idea

All,

This may be against blogging rules, but I thought you would appreciate the message I got today from my friend Linda "aka Lijie". She came to Thanksgiving a few years ago, and is still trying to keep the music sceen alive. Check her out, and if you are interested, it will make a great gift for the recipient, as well as a little bonus for her! She is really good, and more albums are to come. Most importantly, she has met most of you so you can put the CD on when guests are over and when they say "wow, who is that amazing musician you are playing in the background to impress me???" you can say, ah that's my old friend Lijie, she is really good! (and sell more albums!)

Take a listen:


Hi,

Still puzzling what to get those couple of people on your list that
are always hard to buy for?

How about the gift of music?

If you've enjoyed the songs at some of my gigs this year, or even
purchased a CD or two for yourself, why not buy some as holiday
gifts? They make great stocking-stuffers, and are enjoyable year
'round.

"ROAM" includes songs like "So High", "Blue", "Roam", "Love Me If You
Can", and "Bar Song", which have all received recognition at the 2004,
2005, and 2006 UK Songwriting Contests.

If you would like to listen to some samples, you can visit
www.myspace.com/lijiemusic.

So, here's how to buy....

One CD is $10. Two for $18. Three for $25.

You can purchase them from me personally if you see me (I almost
always have some with me), or order them to be shipped.

Shipping costs are $2.50 per CD. If you have a Paypal account, you
can send the money to email account lijie@lijiemusic.com, which is
fast and easy to use! Please remember to include shipping and
handling = ) Or if you'd like to pay via check or money order, just
contact me by email, and I can give you details of where to send
payment.

Thank you again for your continued support, and have a wonderful
holiday season.

blessings,
-lijie-
www.lijiemusic.com
myspace.com/lijiemusic

Hi Family...
I just wanted to say what a great thanksgiving that was! It was so fun to see everyone and get reaquainted. And not to mention---the food!! Thanks to those who cooked, cleaned and hosted everything! I know we didnt go around and say what we were thankful for on Thrusday, but I am thankful for ALL of you!!! Hope everyone had a safe trip home. Cant wait until the next time!
Love you all!
Love, Lib

New Orleans

So again it seems as if I have the dubious(?) honor of following up Eamonn with a blog post. I am not attempting to be a one-upper but perhaps rather a late opening act for him.

I too had a slight loss of balance the other night (read a nose dive (or two)) – [do parentheses within other parentheses work in a sentence or should I use brackets? n/m] – as part of a fantastic field trip with my civil engineering class to New Orleans. More on the learning experience in a moment. As part of the trip, we spent two nights out on the town on Bourbon Street. Never have I seen such smut and debauchery and yet never have I had so much fun. (Weird how those go hand in hand). However, I was merely an observer and not a partaker in this filth. Bourbon Street is filled with bars and places of ill repute to say the least. The former being the source of the fun and the latter being the subject of observation and slight trepidation. Each night as we walked around in groups of varying sizes, bouncers and hypemen would approach us on the street to beg and plead with us to enter their establishment. We experienced the lights and sounds of New Orleans, soaked up the culture, literally and figuratively, danced, and listened to live bands perform for most of the night, before heading back to our hotel for a good night of sleep prior to beginning our 17+ hour day the next morning. (Now for you aunts and young cousins out there, you can do the math to figure out my age, but before you go condemning me you need to realize that New Orleans has slightly different rules regarding beverage consumption.) To make this long story short and generalize some of the details, in the midst of one of these nights, I suddenly experienced a slight loss of balance on Bourbon Street resulting in a nice shiner on my forehead the next morning.

Now the important details. Three of my civil engineering professors have been consultants in the recovery of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They have aided in levee reconstruction, hurricane analysis, and remediation of contaminants in the Mississippi River, among other things. As part of an effort to not only educate us in the classroom but also in the ways of social and professional responsibility, our professors took us on this four day, three night field trip of New Orleans and the Mississippi River with University sponsorship and funding. A group of 60+ students and faculty were bussed to Chicago and then flown down to New Orleans. Upon arrival, we immediately embarked on a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. This was the first meal of my favorite part of the trip – the food. We had catfish, mardi gras pasta, almond chicken, bread pudding and so much more. After this cruise we had our first night on the town. After roughly two hours of sleep, we woke up and went to the Army Corps of Engineers offices and heard a few briefings. Needless to say some people, professors included, dozed off for brief moments of the presentations. Following this, we toured the various canal systems and pump stations that were/are meant to protect New Orleans from flooding. After lunch we visited the Lower 9^th Ward. This was an eye-opening experience. Even with people warning us how much destruction there was, we couldn’t have been prepared for what we saw. There were still cars on roofs, houses in the middle of streets, empty foundations, etc. Houses were marked with a certain pattern by rescuers with one of the markings indicating if bodies were found. Although there were many zeros, there were also a number of ones and twos. The amount of destruction certainly was disheartening but the recovery strides being taken were obvious as well. After this sobering experience, we went to another fantastic restaurant called Jacques-Imo’s. We were served plate after plate of fantastic food: special sausage, eggplant, and crocodile sausage cheesecake, to name a few. And these were just the appetizers; for the main course I settled on a rabbit dish while some of my friends had such things as grouper, duck, boullibaise(sp?) among other things, finished off by bread pudding. After dinner we departed for Vicksburg where we went straight to bed. Seriously. The next day we toured the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. It was an amazing place with the largest supercomputer in the Department of Defense which processes huge amounts of data in a variety of projects. We then toured a series of canals called the Old River Control which regulates Mississippi River water flow and Atchafalaya River water flow to the Gulf. This was a great learning experience Uncle Bill which you probably would be interested in, that is if you and everyone else are still reading. That night we had dinner on a haunted plantation in Louisiana. Once again, the food was stunning. We then drove back to New Orleans for a Bourbon Street remix. Needless to say, it lived up to the standard set the first night. So once again after two more hours of sleep, pushing the week total to about nine hours, we woke up and went on a seven hour boat cruise of the Mississippi. We then hopped on a plane and flew back home. For more details about either the fun or the learning or both, let me know. I would love to tell you about it.

The week didn’t end here for me though. After getting home at 1130pm on Wednesday night, I unpacked and repacked before leaving at 530am Thursday morning for Colorado Springs, CO as part of a field trip with Air Force ROTC to visit some bases as a front for the real reason of going to the Notre Dame-Air Force Academy football game. So in the span of a week I went on two completely free field trips in opposite parts of the country.

As I finish this up, my parents and siblings are driving to South Bend from Chicago for what looks to be another fantastic weekend. So for all you younger cousins out there, work hard in school, get good grades, and consider attending this fine institution of higher learning (and fun).

Little Girl Schneider!

Hello Family,

Just thought you all might like to know that Jim and I are having a baby girl! We found out on Friday...she is about 21 weeks now, so more than half-way through and everything looks good so far. Jimbo is in a little shock---I don't think he has ever considered it a possibility that he would have a daughter. Uncle Ed, you might have to have a heart-to-heart with him and explain the ropes....

I know that you have all seen MILLIONS of ultrasound pictures, but I would feel like I wasn't being very "excited-new-mom-to-be" if I didn't post some too.

We are sooo looking forward to T-giving!

Love to all,
Shannon

Fear of Heights?

Well, being the one who did jump (crash-land) from the "high place" all that I can say is don't do as I have done, unless you are ready for the consequences. I have never really been afraid of heights and to prove it I took the leap of faith. After reading all about Wimble in MT I thought my life was a little too easy. So, while still quite far from crossing the divide or committing suicide, I jumped off a roof maybe 10-15' high to a concrete trampoline. Im now living the high life on crutches and my upper body is getting the workout it finally deserves. I've been meaning to get the upper body buffed out for a long time, and I guess in the words of Jim Carrey that I heard in an interview one time, "Well, Im the kind of guy that if I had to learn to write with my left hand, I'd start out with cutting my right one off." So by ridding the legs from the equation, I can finally focus on the arms. [Full disclosure: I was walking home one night and decided to visit a spot that I often frequent, the Gymnasium roof at Seattle U (I was alone) and went up to the top (like I'd done a million times before), looked at the great view of the city (like I'd done a million times before), and when I had had enough of the beautiful view (and the crisp autumn air), I exited/jumped off of the roof (like I'd done a million times before). Like Uncle Mike wrote to a privledged few (not me), there were a few other variables in the equation. So instead of landing in a forward leaning position, kind of a crouch-ing-ish position, I did more of a butt-buster (for all of you who have ever jumped into a pool from the diving board, you do more of a mock driving position. (If this picture isn't coming out in the head I'll be back in Pasco to demonstrate over Thanksgiving.) Long story short, I'm out of Painkillers (like the 2nd day), I walk around the house unaided (like an old man), and for the long-distances I either crutch it or get a taxi, or since I have no money, I stay at home (the fun comes to me).] Hope all goes well with Y'all, don't worry about me, and continue with your (boring, mundane j/k) lives. ER
P.S. I want to see how many "you're an idiot" responses I can get out of this, so the more the merrier, and if its already been said, just reply 'ditto'.

SAN DIEGO FUN!!!!

It was great to see most of you this past week during my visit to Pasco. I wish I would have had more time to spend there, but I had to get back to the sick kids in San Diego. I know that I have been an absent blogger these days. I just wanted all our cousins to know that I still stand by my last blog of having a 21+ weekend get-together in SD. So let me or Cait know who all is interested (realistically=funds, time, no school or work) so we can start planning!
Peace out,
NER